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Sunday, September 6, 2009

For me, it seems that plain ol' correct fearmonger doesn't have the same oomph as warmonger, and hence I add an additional -er suffix to make fearmongerer gives the word more, for lack of a better term, impact. That said, I will probably add more -er suffixes whenever this opposition party of fear become more ridiculous (not to be confused with the now-eerily quiet, thinking fiscal conservatives I've known in the past...or maybe they were figments of my imagination?).

They were fearmongers before the election.

They became fearmongerers a little past the first few teabag parties, when the birther saga came to a climax. (That's what she said, by the way.)

With the deathers and the loud townhallers, I think that deserves another suffix: fearmongererers.

Their apparent hatred of education and the fear that a sitting president could inspire their children to learn and not grow up to become dittohead suckers gives them another suffix: fearmongerererers. A thinking conservative parent - heck, any decent parent regardless of ideology - would also watch the President's upcoming webcast and discuss the content of it with their children at dinnertime. Unfortunately, these fearmongerererers advocate pulling their child from school the whole day, with little to no discussion about the importance of education. That is apparently how the fearmongerererers will replenish their numbers for the future - to have voter base filled with a bunch of easily angered, easily frightened, very obedient to a certain fear-based ideology, undereducated group of people.

Right-wing hate radio super-personalities aside, when the fearmongerererers in broadcast media make some illogical points, that deserves another suffix: fearmongererererers. Earlier this year, actor Craig T. Nelson remarked, "I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No." You tell 'em Coach! Since you are 65 years old, tell the government to stay the hell away from your Medicare, too!

Bravo, Ms. Bartiromo! You've (inadvertently) solved the government option problem in health care reform! Let's lower the Medicare age to everyone who wants it, so they can buy into it! And if you don't want this government option, you can stick with your private insurer (until they overcharge or drop you for business reasons).

Maybe the term fearmongererererers has become a bit too ridiculous with all the suffixes. It's debatable whether the prime motivation for these f-m'ers is polarized politics, deep-seated racism, or some sort of abstract hatred, so calling them fearmongrels might be a little too insensitive. However, the Australian usage for the word mongrel does fit appropriately:

In Australia, "mongrel" epithet generally refers to an ill-bred man; a man of poor manners or morals.

But the fear part in fearmongrels just makes it redundant. In any case, the neologism fearmongrels sounds pretty snappy, as long as everyone understands we're using the "of poor manners" definition to the word.

On the other hand, the potential neologism fearmongoloids is just racist and wrong, unless everyone understands the irony applied to the group that would most likely use this sort of archaically ill-mannered speech.

So fearmongrels they are, unless...

Let's just get it over with and call 'em assholes, or if you prefer, arseholes. That really is the underlying condition of the world's bad people, no matter the title - whether they're labeled as alleged racists, fascists, demagogues, abusers, criminals, hypocrites, liars, etc. In fact, the more specific you are in your allegation(s), the easier it is for them to sue for defamation or whatever form of tort. I think asshole is as vague as it is a powerful descriptor of the world's bad people - whatever the form, and whatever the ideology.

To those who believe in good, and to those who believe that they can agree to disagree civilly with their neighbors: Don't let the assholes grind you down.